Ant-Man
Finally got some free time to sit down and type this. Saw Ant-Man last week, and really enjoyed it. Marvel does it again is the narrative right now, however, I think over time, this is going to slowly fall as time passes.
What I mean by this is multiple viewings. The more people watch, the more people are going to pick up and pick it apart. For instance, if Hope was so mad at her dad, and acted like she detested him this whole time, and was sooooo close to Cross, then why did she simply run back to her Pym to help him? They sort of glossed over that so easily. She gives him attitude, calls him Pym instead of dad, acts so annoyed by him, then a scene later is helping him at his house? Yet, she calls the cops on Scott? And keeps feeding Cross her help, the whole time?????? First viewing, it’s all easy to absord and digest, but as that gets looked at more closely, I think people are gonna start to downgrade it.
The story was easy going, easy to follow, not too complex, and that really helped. The pace and humor was just perfect, Pena did a great job keeping things funny but not too over the top. I thought Rudd did a great job and played the character perfectly as the struggling dad tryin to see his daughter, then bein thrown into the craziest of crazy situations. Douglas did a great job as the mentor/backbone type. He was plausible enough as the brilliant scientist, and aloof enough to play this old, rich, eccentric dude now. Hope was obviously a bright spot, and I look forward to seein her as Wasp in the future. Cross was yet another generic Marvel villain. He seemed a little evil, a little crazy, but never once did I expect him to be scary enough to dominate the world, or threaten our way of life or anything. He tried, but they flat out don’t have a way to create real threats in this Marvel Universe. Loki at least has some gifts, and some magic, and of course is just crazy enough to make you think he might take over the galaxy, but even he comes up short every time. Cross comes nowhere close to Loki, and that will be another factor in time that will start to chip away at the good vibes currently flowing for Ant-Man.
CGI was crazy good. Michael Douglas lookin in his early 40’s in the beginning was flat out nuts. Oscar worthy.
But after that, the technology of the shrinking, the ants, the bathtub, the train scene, all of that was really good. LOVED the scene with Falcon, really well done, and a very good way of connecting the films and giving that character another platform to get some shine (after basically nothing in Ulton) That scene overall was a lot of fun. The 2 end credit scenes were…….eh, alright. Seeing Wasp outfit was ok, but nothing mind blowing. And seeing another set up for Civil War was kinda cool, but still wasn’t really much more than a guy breathing hard, and Falcon/Cap talkin and alluding to us seeing Ant-Man again soon. Ya know, like we wouldn’t already know that or anything.
It certainly had the look, and the feel of the other movies, and it has heart, it really does, you feel bad for Scott and how much his daughter loves him and he really wants to be there for her, stuff like that does help and will continue to help over time, but some of the other stuff will start to show to people and in time, people will treat this film much like the first Captain America or Thor. (not well) But they didn’t embarrass themselves, the movie was a solid effort overall, and will build momentum with its sequel and some of the appearances in other films like Civil War and eventually the Avengers. I’d say a solid 6/8 right now, not the 7-7.5’s I’ve seen thrown around.
